About Me

I am a native of Illinois and grew up in Wilmette, a northern suburb of Chicago. I have one sibling, an older brother.
After dropping out of college, I moved to California in 1973 with my first husband. I married my present husband, Butch, in 1977 and got 4 children in the deal. They have gone on to make me a grandmother 24 times over and a great-grandmother of 16 with three more due in 2016.
Three years after I married Butch I returned to school. I got my bachelors and masters degrees in speech communication and was a professor in that field for 13 years. I retired in 2001 to return to school and get my doctorate in folklore. Now I meld my two interests - folklore and genealogy - and add my teaching background, resulting in my current profession: speaker/entertainer of genealogically-related topics. I play a number of folk instruments, but my preference is guitar, which I have been playing since 1963. I am a Board Certified genealogist and more information on all this, as well as direct contact info, is on my Circlemending website.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

SUNDAY SINGALONG - Sad songs

Welcome to Sunday Singalong with Circlemending!

I was pleased to see some gospel singalong participants in the last couple of weeks. This week was the anniversary of my mother's passing and, as can be imagined, I was in something of a "funk" as a result. While I'm doing OK now (thanks, in part, to the Flagstaff Folk Festival this weekend), I thought that "sad songs" would be a good theme for this week (don't worry, I'll counter with "happy songs" for a future theme). So what songs do you remember as being sad? Remember, we want to keep these "older" songs (i.e., not something that was written last week, OK?). You can print out the lyrics, give a link to a set of lyrics, MP3, YouTube, or all of the above, if you like. Or just identify the sad song by title.

With the many disasters that have befallen our country in recent years (and currently, in the Gulf region), I can't help but think of songs written about those events. One comes immediately to mind as being particularly sad (maybe because it is still shrouded so much in mystery). July 2 will be the 73rd anniversary of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. The song "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight" by Kinky Friedman is thought to be the first song that carried her name. The refrain, "Happy Landings to you, Amelia Earhart; Farewell, first lady of the air" are both catchy and poignant. Why, one can even get the tune as a ringtone for the cell phone!

To hear the song, go to the YouTube showing of Red River Dave (the first to record the song).

I can remember Daddy playing the guitar and singing the Kingston Trio's version of Tom Dooley:

[Intro:]Throughout historyThere've been many songs written about the eternal triangleThis next one tells the story of a Mr Grayson, a beautiful womanAnd a condemned man named Tom Dooley...When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley... must hang...

Hang down your head, Tom DooleyHang down your head and cryHang down your head, Tom DooleyPoor boy, you're bound to dieI met her on the mountainThere I took her lifeMet her on the mountainStabbed her with my knife

Just saw Bill Yates and the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band sing "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight", last night. Makes me sad because it reminds me of Charlie Waller, I miss him every time I hear a Country Gentlemen song.

I was introduced to The Blackest Crow--a song about parting--by a classmate and I'm very fond of it. Here's a link to my favorite YouTube version (Bruce Molsky): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6jh1vqNvMs

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Material on this blog is copyrighted by Jean Wilcox Hibben. Any information from a source other than Jean Wilcox Hibben is credited accordingly. Reproduction or reprinting of it in any way is prohibited without written permission from its author or the cited source.